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Quality Email Marketing

Email recipients have the power when it comes to their inbox. Users controlling which
communications to unsubscribe from or flag as spam create hurdles for many email
marketers. Full inboxes from social networks, retail stores, promotions, deals, and more
only increase the number of annoyed email recipients and increase the number of lost
contacts for marketers. Follow these 3 simple steps and you’ll be on your way to quality email
lists in no time!

Start it Off Right: It’s known that relevant content is what drives successful
email campaigns. Relevancy should begin at the time of email capture or list
subscription. Relevant list building improves list quality, decreases the likelihood
of losing contacts later, and can be as simple as the appropriate placement of
sign-up forms, such as a retail newsletter subscription when a shopping cart is
started. Expectations for email communications should also be set at the time
of subscription, including what type of content users will receive, how frequent
sends are, and why the offerings are valuable.

Keep it Relevant: After expectations are set, follow through. Deliver exactly
what the subscriber requested and nothing more. This clarity should also be
present in your subject lines. Don’t try to trick your audience; be upfront with
the content that is beyond the envelope. Clear subject lines make it easier

for recipients to quickly identify interest in your email and chose to open it
amongst multiple competing messages. Past the subject line, you should offer
a preference center to your audience that allows them to customize the types of
communications they receive, the frequency of emails, the send time, and more.
Always have the preference center available and easy to see in your email footer.

Clean it Up: Although it’s important to keep your current recipient list satisfied
with your email content, the solution to quality lists isn’t to encourage recipients
to stay subscribed. For those inactive recipients, the better solution may be
encouraging them to opt-out or pause email communications until the right time
for them. In other words, it’s very important to make it easy to unsubscribe from
your email list. This ensures that resources are not wasted on unqualified viewers
and reduces the chance of emails being flagged, consequently damaging the
sender’s reputation. You also don’t have to rely on users to do the unsubscribing
themselves. Make a habit of removing all hard bounces immediately and soft
bounces after three attempts. Re-engagement campaigns are also useful in
determining which recipients are worth continued contact and which ones should
be left out.

Use these steps when creating new email campaigns and revisit them for recurring
campaigns that aren’t performing at optimal levels. Continue to target the right audience
and you’ll get the right results in return.